


What He Wanted

by sandersonsister



Series: Soulmate AU's - Haikyuu! [27]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, M/M, Multi, Pre-Slash, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-02 00:05:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandersonsister/pseuds/sandersonsister
Summary: Tobio didn't care about soulmates. He cared about volleyball. That was it.





	What He Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! So, it's been...about a month or so since I wrote anything. I've been working on school stuff and work has been horrible because my boss has been out for the past month and I'm trying to cover her job and mine. But, I have one final project due and then I graduate, so I'll have more time! This is just an odd little one shot that I wrote because I needed a break. Hope you enjoy it!

Soulmates weren’t a subject Tobio really cared about. He understood that the scars that appeared on his body were from whatever injuries his soulmate acquired. There was one on his knee that appeared when he was eight. Another on the back of his hand from when he was six. He himself felt guilty when he climbed over a fence when he was twelve and managed to get a long gash on the back of his leg, knowing that his soulmate would wake up to a new scar on his own leg the next morning. 

There were many people in his class that showed off their scars. They guessed about what had caused them and what their soulmates would think of the scars they caused. Tobio never really paid any attention to those conversations. He was focused on something else. 

From the moment he had seen a volleyball game on television, he had decided that he wanted to play. He asked his mother for a volleyball the next morning and she had seemed surprised but agreed. His father had brought one home for him later that night, having stopped by the store on his way home from work. 

Tobio spent all of his time practicing. He wanted to be the best. He joined his elementary school team and was happy when the coach seemed impressed with all of his hard work. His mother and father came to every single game and cheered for him from the stands. He smiled brightly at them after every game that they won and ran into his mothers arms each time they lost. His elementary school team often switched players positions and Tobio wasn’t entirely sure which position he wanted to stick with. He enjoyed spiking but playing setter was a lot of fun as well. The only position he really knew he didn’t want to play was libero – not because he was bad at it but because he didn’t enjoy as much as the other positions. 

It was in junior high that he figured out what position he wanted to play. His coach at Kitagawa Daiichi made sure to tell him that he could pick whatever position he wanted but Tobio had made his decision the moment he watched Oikawa Tooru play. The boy moved his teammates like a person moved pieces on a chess board. Tobio was amazed as he watched him.

He wanted to be like that.

His firm choice seemed to annoy the older boy. Oikawa had mostly ignored Tobio for most of the season but he had become irritable and snarky once Tobio told him he wanted to be a setter. Iwaizumi, Oikawa’s soulmate and a third year, often snapped angrily at the older setter in defense of Tobio. 

That just made him angrier. 

After Oikawa graduated, Tobio pushed himself and the team to beat Shiratorizawa and go to Nationals. It was something that Oikawa had never been able to do and Tobio was determined to prove to the older setter that he wasn’t the waste of space Oikawa seemed to think he was. 

During his second year of junior high, Tobio was driving home with his mother when a car swerved out in front of them. His mother slammed on the brakes in an attempt to avoid the car but they were unable to avoid the collision. 

Tobio remembered his head slamming against the dashboard and the car swerving. He woke up over an hour later in the local hospital. 

His mother had broken her back and was paralyzed from the waist down as a result. Tobio had gotten off easy with a large scar on his forehead. He was lucky he was able to hide it with his hair and it didn’t really affect anything in his life. His mother wasn’t so lucky. 

There were many changes after that night. His mother was no longer able to work and his father spent more time in his office to make up for the lack of income. Tobio went to school each day and volleyball practice but he went home each night to complete whatever chores needed done and make dinner. There was a nurse that came by each day while he was at school to help, yet another expense, but she left about an hour before Tobio returned home. 

His father usually returned after Tobio had made dinner, cleaned up, helped his mother with whatever she needed, put her to bed, and then climbed into bed himself. 

His grades began to slip but neither of his parents said anything. His father just sighed and nodded his head, knowing that it was difficult for Tobio to complete his school work on top of everything else. His mother didn’t mention it at all. She wasn’t really the same since she returned home after the accident. 

His father mentioned that Tobio would have more time if he quit the team. Tobio refused. Volleyball was the one thing that was constant in his life and he didn’t want to lose it. It was the thing he was the best at, the thing that he cared about. His father’s jaw had clenched but he told Tobio he needed to be the best if he wanted to get an education with the grades he was currently making. 

So Tobio pushed harder. 

He knew that he was upsetting his team. Especially during his third year. He shouldn’t have been surprised that they reacted like they did. But, well, he had thought that they understood. That at least Kunimi and Kindaichi, the two that he was closest to on the team and the only two he would actually consider to be his friends, would understand. 

They didn’t. 

He quit the team the day after that disastrous game. He didn’t say a word to anyone from the team and he began to focus on entering high school. He had planned to go to Aoba Johsai, the school that most athletes from his junior high attended, but he decided that he wasn’t going to be able to do so. Not with what had happened the previous year. Not when he would have to see Kindaichi and Kunimi every day. 

He didn’t even want to think about Oikawa’s face if he walked into the gym. 

He decided that the best school for him to join was Karasuno High School. It was a fallen powerhouse but Tobio had heard a rumor that the old coach, the coach that had taken the school to Nationals, was going to return. Between that and the fact that the school was close to home, which meant he could get home earlier, was the reason he chose to attend. 

He didn’t know at the time that it was the best choice he ever made. 

He really didn’t think so during his first week. 

He and some idiot first year managed to get themselves kicked off the team after they got into an argument that ended with them knocking off the vice-principal’s wig. The captain, Daichi, agreed to allow the two back onto the team as long as they won a practice match against the other first years. He was stuck practicing each and everyday with the idiot, trying to teach him the basics. He had no idea what this kid had been doing for the past few years but Tobio was pretty sure he was better when he was in elementary school than the redhead was now. 

It was during one of these late-night practices that the other two first years, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, appeared. It was obvious that the two were friends and Yamaguchi kind of followed Tsukishima’s example. Tobio was left feeling annoyed and slightly breathless at the end of the confrontation. There were two main reasons for that.

The first was because Tsukishima was a jerk that kept calling him ‘King’, the dreaded nickname his junior high teammates had given him. 

The second was because the blond boy had a very familiar scar across his forehead. 

Tobio pushed the thought from his head, not willing to contemplate what it meant until after the practice match. And maybe not even then.

He really didn’t like the snarky bastard. 

But that didn’t change the fact that his mind seemed to catalogue the various scars when they were on the court, facing against each other. Scar on his knee. Scar on the back of his leg. There was even one on the back of Tsukishima’s hand. 

There really was no doubt about it. 

But Tobio was going to keep the information to himself. 

They won the practice match, thanks to the fact that Hinata (the idiot redhead) was able to hit Tobio’s quick toss. Well, as long as his eyes were closed. But he could still hit it. 

It was something Tobio could use. 

As time went on, Tobio began to relax a bit around Tsukishima. The blond was still a snarky ass but Tobio could deal with that. He was more worried about the fact that he was smart. Really smart. Smart enough to slowly put the pieces together. Tobio became a bit paranoid about his hair. He made sure it was never cut too short. That it always hung down perfectly to cover the scar on his forehead. Because one look at that scar and Tsukishima would know, the same way Tobio had. 

And Tobio didn’t want him to know. 

All he wanted was to play volleyball. He didn’t want to focus on another person constantly, the way his father was so focused on his mother. He didn’t want to give up his dream because of another person, even if that person was supposed to ‘complete’ him. 

He just wanted to win Inter-High.

Which they didn’t do. Because they lost. To Aoba Johsai. 

That was one of the reasons he was so excited when they were invited to the summer training camp with Nekoma. Despite the fact that the other team was a long-standing rival, Tobio knew that playing against them, as well as the other teams that were invited, was a chance for his team to catch up to Aoba Johsai. 

They were not going to lose again.

Tsukishima didn’t seem to hold the same amount of enthusiasm that the rest of the team had when they talked about the camp. He would always scowl (even more fiercely than usual) and mutter something bout idiot captains. Tobio assumed that the blond was talking about the captain from Nekoma, though he had no idea when the two had spoken to one another. They had had that practice match (the one that never seemed to end, thanks to Hinata) but he hadn’t seen the Nekoma captain around the blond middle blocker. 

But Tobio had been a bit preoccupied at the time. 

And, really, what did he care if Tsukishima was talking to the cat-like third year?

It wasn’t any of his business.

And yet, as he stared in horror at the scene in front of him, he began to realize that it was.

Because Kuroo Tetsurou, the captain of Nekoma, had just pushed his messy hair out of his face to show Tsukishima a very familiar scar on his forehead. One that hadn’t been visible before thanks to his hair. 

Tsukishima was gaping.

So was Tobio.

So was the rest of the team.

Because, of course, Kuroo had decided that he was tired of Tsukishima ignoring him beyond their little practice sessions each night and cornered him in the cafeteria during breakfast on the last day of camp.

And everyone was watching. 

“I – woah! You two are soulmates?! Kenma, I thought you were Kuroo-san’s soulmate!” Hinata yelled out. Tobio fought the urge to slam his hand into Hinata’s face. Why did he have to be so loud? Especially since – yeah, well, that just guaranteed that anyone that hadn’t noticed what was happening was now staring.

Thank you, Hinata.

“Why would you think that?” Kenma questioned, making Tobio jump as the older boy somehow materialized beside him. 

“I just – you two seem so close!”

“We are,” Kenma sighed, his hands fidgeting with the sleeves of his shirt before he reached into his pocket to pull out some sort of gaming system. He flipped it on and didn’t move his eyes away from the screen as he responded. “He’s my best friend. But we aren’t soulmates.”

“But-“

“You can be close friends with someone without being their soulmate,” Akaashi suddenly said from beside Tobio. He closed his eyes and bit his lip as his heart pounded in his chest. What was with these boys just sneaking up on them? And why were they all so focused on this conversation? Shouldn’t everyone be headed to the gym? It was the last day, after all. 

He didn’t want to be here.

“I know that!” Hinata yelled out, his brows furrowed. “I just - I thought they were! Why would Kuroo-san be soulmates with Tsukishima?!”

“It isn’t exactly something you decide on,” Akaashi sighed, crossing his arms over his chest and looking toward the two boys in question. Neither seemed to move but they were talking softly, too softly for Tobio to hear. Tsukishima’s hand gestured sharply and Kuroo’s brows furrowed as he shook his head.

Tobio really, really wanted to leave. 

“But they’re so different!”

“They aren’t,” Akaashi denied, shaking his head. “Not really. They actually have a lot in common.”

“But it’s Tsukishima! And Kuroo-san is so cool!”

Kenma snorted loudly at the words and Akaashi’s lips twitched. “Is he?”

“Yeah!” 

“Hmm.”

It was at that moment that both Tsukishima and Kuroo turned as one, their eyes instantly falling on Tobio. A pit began to form in his stomach.

He really needed to get to the gym.

Now, preferably. 

“We should go,” he said out loud, turning his eyes away from Kuroo and Tsukishima and grabbing Hinata by the back of his shirt. Hinata let out a loud whine as Tobio began to drag him toward the gym. “Come on, dumbass! It’s the last day and we need to-“

“Kageyama.”

“King.”

“-practice,” Tobio finished, blinking in confusion as two tall figures suddenly appeared in front of him. He cursed when he realized that, somehow, Kuroo and Tsukishima had got in front of him and blocked the door. 

“Woah! You guys moved fast! Tsukishima, why don’t you move like that when we’re playing?! You should! We could win if you-“

“Stop talking,” Tsukishima snapped toward Hinata as he stared at Tobio through narrowed eyes. “The King is right, you should go to the gym.”

“Wha-“

“Kenma! You go too!” Kuroo called out. From the corner of his eye, Tobio saw Kenma lift his eyes briefly toward his best friend, slightly confused at the order, but recognition flashed across his face as he looked back down and shuffled toward the door. 

“Come on, Shouyo.”

“Okay, Kenma!”

Hinata moved quickly, breaking Tobio’s hold on his shirt as he ran behind Kenma. He paused momentarily at the door, his brows furrowed as he glanced back. “Kageyama-kun? Are you comin-“

“He’ll be there soon,” Kuroo cut in. Hinata frowned once more, looking between the three of them warily, but he finally shrugged and turned away once more.

Tobio wanted to scream.

Shouldn’t his best friend have noticed that he wanted out of this situation?

“So,” Kuroo said a few minutes later, the cafeteria having cleared out after Kenma’s disappearance. “Tsukki here-“

“Don’t call me that.”

“Had an interesting story to tell me. See, I asked how he got the wicked scar on his forehead but he said it didn’t come from him. Then he said that he already knew who his soulmate was. I, of course, had to point out that this,” he gestured to the scar on his hand, “was done when I accidently – well, that doesn’t matter. But I know that scar was from me. And I saw the scar on Tsukki’s leg.”

“Seriously. Stop.”

“And the one on his arm. I have to admit, I didn’t notice yours all that much,” he shrugged sheepishly but Tobio saw the glint in his eye. For some reason, he didn’t really think the other boy was as sorry as he wanted him to think. “But it’s pretty obvious now.” His gaze dropped, almost lecherously, and Tobio shifted his arm behind his back. The back of his leg was covered at the moment, so that was safe. But…

Wait.

Did he just say that…

“Don’t even try it,” Tsukishima scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling. “You really think I didn’t notice? I’m not an idiot, King. I knew even before I saw this,” he motioned to the scar on his head, “when you fell asleep on the bus. I just wasn’t sure if you were a complete idiot or if you were ignoring it as well.”

Oh. So Tobio hadn’t hidden it as well as he thought. 

“You never said-“

“Yeah, well, I’m not really into the whole soulmate thing.” He shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes. “And you always stare off into space when everyone talks about it, so I didn’t think you were either. But this one-“

“I am into the soulmate thing!” Kuroo drawled, flashing a sharp grin. “Just my luck, right? But it’s fine, because I’m sure the two of you will be fine with the three of us messaging each other and meeting up occasionally.”

Tobio stared at the third year in horror but Kuroo seemed perfectly serious. He raised an eyebrow challengingly and Tobio turned to Tsukishima, hoping that the other first year would be able to get them out of this. But Tsukishima merely rolled his eyes once more and sighed. “If we do, do you promise not to push?” 

“Promise.” 

“Fine.”

Tobio shook his head instantly at the agreement. What was Tsukishima doing? Why would he agree to something so…so…stupid? “I’m not-“

“You are.”

“You can’t make me-“

“If you don’t, I’ll tell Oikawa-san that you met your soulmates and refused to have anything to do with them. I’m sure he would have a few things to say to you about the subject,” Tsukishima smirked. Tobio felt himself pale. No matter how much Oikawa hated him, Tobio had no doubt the third year would be furious to be contacted by Tsukishima about something like that. 

Especially since Tobio had been lectured, repeatedly, in his first year of junior high about how great soulmates were. Well, he and every other person on the team. Iwaizumi had just rolled his eyes and gone back to practicing as his soulmate gushed to the rest of the team. 

He really didn’t think Oikawa would appreciate Tobio’s differing opinion.

“Besides, it isn’t as if I don’t have your information,” Tsukishima continued. “I’ll just give it to Kuroo-san if you don’t.”

“And I’ll message you daily,” Kuroo said as his lips twisted up mockingly. “Question – who is Oikawa and why are you threatening Kageyama with him?”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“But I really do.”

“Fine!” Tobio snapped. He really just wanted this conversation to be over so he could go play volleyball. That was why they were here. Not because of…they weren’t here for this! Plus, he didn’t come to Tokyo to talk about Oikawa-san. “I’ll give it to you after practice. Can we go now?”

“We can! But, if you try to get out of it, I’ll let Tsukki call this Oikawa person.”

“Oh, you’ll let me, will you?”

“Hey! Kageyama! There’s something I want to ask! The scar on our heads-“

“Car accident,” Tobio muttered through gritted teeth. This, this was one reason he didn’t want to find his soulmates. He didn’t want to answer these questions. He didn’t want to talk about his mother. He didn’t want them to know. Especially if the person in question was Tsukishima.

“Must have been bad.”

Tobio nodded sharply and began to walk faster, the doors of the gym coming into sight. He was almost there. Almost away from this situation. He would get to play volleyball and forget that any of this ever happened. He could figure out what to do about it later. As long as he could play, he would be fine. 

As long as he had a volleyball in hand, he could ignore everything else. 

That was what he wanted.

He glanced over his shoulder and shivered when he noticed that both Tsukishima and Kuroo were watching him with narrowed, calculating eyes. 

Why did he feel as if that was soon going to be changing?


End file.
